It is so good to be with you, brothers and sisters here in Richmond. When I come to Richmond, it is really like coming home. I am glad that Kenny did not introduce me as a guest.
Let us bow our heads and look to the Lord for our time together.
Father, we commit our time to You. Together, we sit at Your feet, Lord, for You to speak to our hearts. We desire to hear Your Word, and we desire to respond to Your Word. Lord, we cry to You because we need Your help. Thank You for the indwelling Holy Spirit, Who is our Help. We worship You. Thank You for our time together. We ask in the precious name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
First, I want to bring greetings to you from the saints in South Jersey, and also an invitation. If any one of you would like to come for a visit, please let us know. We would love to have you.
Before I share what is in my heart, I want to say a little about those brothers and sisters who happen to be younger than we are. We do not call them young people; they are simply younger brothers and sisters. They are brothers and sisters in the Lord who happen to be a little younger.
The Lord has done a great work among them in these last few months. It has been marvelous in our eyes, beyond our expectation—something I personally have never experienced before. I have attended many gatherings in various countries with young people, but this year, through the Toronto Conference and the Richmond Conference, the Lord has done such a deep work in their lives.
When I listened to the testimonies of the young people in Richmond, I listened at least twice. I also listened to the testimonies of the young people in Toronto and our local New Jersey young people. What the Lord has done seems to be lasting. It is not transient excitement for a few days or weeks. The Lord seems to have done a very permanent work in these young hearts.
About four weeks ago, in our New Jersey worship time, a younger brother opened the meeting. Usually, one of the older brothers does this, but this time it was a young brother. I tell you, his ministry to the Body in worship and praise set the whole tone for that time. We were so liberated in our spirits, and there was such a flow of love and worship unto the Lord.
I want to let you know, younger brothers and sisters: do not underestimate your place in the Body of Christ. You have a vital part. You have a vital contribution to make in the Body of Christ.
Then we went to Toronto. During the worship time there, a freshman in college opened the meeting in worship. It touched my heart deeply. Last summer, at a youth conference, this young man came to know the Lord in a very real way. This time, he opened the worship in praise, and I was so encouraged.
Young people are now coming to prayer meetings. Since last summer, the number attending our prayer meeting has doubled, and most of them are young people. Sometimes the whole family comes to prayer. Honestly, the Lord is doing something. Thank the Lord for what He is doing.
If you do not mind, I would like to say a few words from my heart to your hearts, especially to younger parents with children, whether they are small or older.
We feel that we are living in the end times. The most precious gift the Lord has given you as parents is your children. My wife and I feel deeply that we must invest in our children spiritually. We must invest in them the things of the Lord. Time is short. They are our most precious treasure, and we must invest spiritually in our young people.
I want to share a few thoughts about Samuel. We often dwell upon this boy called Samuel, but we fail to see that behind Samuel there was Hannah. You cannot study Samuel without studying Hannah. It was because of Hannah that there was a Samuel. Brothers and sisters, as parents, you play a very vital role.
Please turn to 1 Samuel. I trust that parents and grandparents will go home and read 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel again and again, asking the Lord to speak to your hearts.
In 1 Samuel 1:22-24, the word weaned is mentioned four times. I am not going to interpret its meaning for you, but I encourage you to go home, come before the Lord, and ask Him to reveal the meaning of this word to you. It is very significant that it is mentioned four times.
Samuel had to be weaned in preparation to live in the house of the Lord and to minister there. We need weaning from things so that we may be wholly for the Lord. I leave that with you. Ask the Lord what it means to wean that child.
Positively, I want to call your attention to 1 Samuel 2:18-19.
Moreover Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.
And his mother made him a little robe, and brought it unto him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
I want you to notice this ephod that Samuel wore. Year after year, his mother prepared a new one, a little larger one, and brought it for Samuel to wear.
Brothers and sisters, to me, as mothers prepare that ephod, that is their greatest ministry. That robe for that young child to wear is their greatest ministry. The meaning of that ephod, that robe, was to prepare that boy to live in the house of the Lord, to have a place in the household, and to stand before the Lord—to inquire of the Lord and to hear from the Lord.
That was the mother’s responsibility. Hannah prepared the robe for Samuel. So mothers, you have a vital role. To me, that is your primary role as a mother: preparing that ephod for your child to wear.
There is no particular mention of Hannah’s husband in this matter, but Hannah was such a wonderful wife that her husband was one hundred percent behind her. What a beautiful picture. Read the account. Her husband was behind her because Hannah’s heart was set on God’s interests, not on her personal interests.
Because Hannah was serious about the Lord, she produced a Samuel whose heart was also serious about the Lord. We speak about what we should minister to young people, and yes, we need to minister to them. But the most needed area is the parents. The children are simply the fruit and reflection of what we are as parents.
May the Lord recover the spiritual role of parents, that they may invest spiritually in their children. As a mother prepares that ephod for the one she loves, that is her greatest ministry.
Brothers and sisters, when the Lord gains your child, you gain that child for yourself. If the Lord does not gain that child, you lose him; you lose her. The Lord must come first.
This is a thought I especially want to share with parents and grandparents. It is about time that we became very serious about the Lord’s interests and brought our young people into the good of the Lord’s purpose.
Now I want to share what is on my heart. The Lord seems to have placed this upon my heart: the servant heart of the Lord Jesus, as found in the Gospel of John.
In the Gospel of Matthew, the Lord Jesus is portrayed as King; yet, if you read it carefully, He is a servant King. He came for one purpose: to serve, not to be served.
In the Gospel of Mark, He is the Servant of servants—the perfect Servant, the model Servant. In the Gospel of Luke, He is the perfect Man, but He is also the perfect Servant. When we come to John, He is portrayed as the Son of God. Yet even in that position, we find that heart—the perfect heart to serve.
It is beautiful to see, through the eyes of John, the service of the Lord from the divine aspect. If the Lord wills, we will touch on a few things together.
Let us turn first to Mark 10:42-45.
And calling them to Him, Jesus saith unto them, Ye know that they who are accounted to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great ones exercise authority over them.
But it is not so among you: but whosoever would become great among you, shall be your minister;
and whosoever would be first among you, shall be servant of all.
For verily the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.
Now listen to Luke 22:24-27.
And there arose also a contention among them, which of them was accounted to be greatest.
And He said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles have lordship over them; and they that have authority over them are called Benefactors.
But ye shall not be so: but he that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
For which is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am in the midst of you as He that serveth.
Lastly, let us turn to John 13:8 and John 13:13-17.
Peter saith unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered Him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.
Ye call Me, Teacher, and, Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord; neither one that is sent greater than He that sent him.
If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them.
Before going further into John, let me give a little background. When the Lord Jesus was twelve years old, His parents brought Him to Jerusalem for the feast. On the journey home, they discovered that He was not with them. They searched for Him, and on the third day they found Him in the temple.
The Lord said to them, “Did ye not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” Another translation says, “Did ye not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” At the very outset of the Lord Jesus’ earthly life, He knew why He had come. His place was in His Father’s house, and His occupation was His Father’s business.
Those are the first recorded words spoken by the Lord Jesus. From His birth until the age of thirty, Scripture records very little concerning Him. Therefore, these words are very important. He came to be in His Father’s house, to be occupied with His Father’s business, and to serve.
Then, at the age of thirty, He was baptized by John in the Jordan. Symbolically, in going into the waters of baptism, He declared to the unseen world as well as to the visible world that He had come to do the will of Him Who sent Him.
In baptism, the cross was in view. He knew in His heart that the cross was the will of the Father before Him. He openly declared that He had come as the Sent One, to do the will of Him Who sent Him.
This servant heart did not begin when He was twelve years old. It did not begin when He was thirty. The service of the Lord began in eternity. That is why John takes us back to the beginning where there is no beginning.
In eternity past, the Lord already had this heart: to do all things to please His Father. When He came into the world, He declared it openly.
In the Gospel of John, there are many “I am” statements—at least seven. Toward the end of John 8, when the Pharisees and scribes wondered Who He really was, He answered with that beautiful phrase: “Before Abraham was born, I am.”
He is the First. In Revelation, He says that He is the First and the Last. He is the great “I Am,” revealed to Moses in Exodus 3—the Almighty One. “I am God, and there is none else.”
This great “I Am” became incarnate in the person of Jesus. This great “I Am” took flesh and blood to do the will of the Father.
The first three “I am” statements in John are these: “I am the bread of life,” “I am the light of the world,” and “I am the door.”
In the old days, who put food on the table? The servant. Who lit up the house when it was dark? The servant. Who opened the door when you came in and went out? The servant.
So we find in these first “I am” statements the royal heart of the Lord Jesus. In John 6 He says, “I am the bread of life.” First, He was the great “I Am,” and then this great “I Am” became food to us.
He gave His life as a ransom, becoming food to sustain the life by which we may grow. Brothers and sisters, we are sinners. We have no way of coming to Him, because He is a holy God. We have no way of reaching Him. But this great “I Am,” in His mercy, reached us. He came to us. He became food to us, light to us, and the way to us.
He is forever ministering to us. J. N. Darby wrote a little booklet entitled Jesus Christ the Servant Forever. If you can get hold of it, it is a very moving little pamphlet. His service is forever.
Yesterday, we had a planning session for the Richmond Conference, and we were speaking of the coming conference as the nineteenth one. Those of us who have been together through these years can look back and see how we have been fed by the Lord.
We have been richly fed. When He feeds us, He gives us the finest of wheat. Look back over these nineteen years: how faithfully the Lord has given us the bread of life.
He knows what we need, and He knows when we need it. The amazing thing is that, as we look back over these years of Richmond conferences, we find an overflow at the end of each conference. There are always twelve baskets full left over.
That has been my experience of how He ministers Himself, His life, and His bread to us. We are satisfied, and yet there is much left over. We have had five conferences in New Jersey, and the Lord has blessed His Word to us and ministered Himself to us in such a living way.
Thank God for His faithful ministry. He feeds us because we are the sheep of His pasture. He knows what to feed us and how to feed us.
You may ask, “How about the brothers who minister to us?” The reason they can minister is because the Lord first ministers to them. Whether we are speaking or receiving, we are all ministered to by the Lord, because we are all His sheep.
Now He is the light of the world. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, we find that God is light, and God’s light shines in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may know Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only beloved Son of God. The Father is always shining upon Him. He can only look upon His Son, because His Son is the One Who fully satisfies Him. If He looks upon anything else, judgment is there because of sin. But the only One Who truly satisfies the Father is His own Son.
God shines His light upon the face of His beloved Son so that we may see Him. Is this not true in these past conferences and in our local gatherings? The Lord has given us light, not merely to see many things, but to see His Son—to see Jesus, to love Him, and to appreciate Him.
God’s light is given that we may see His beloved Son. We see Jesus, and we see Him in one another. The church is an expression of the Lord Jesus.
Whatever we do, we must have the Lord Jesus in view—in our fellowship, in our worship, and in our local meetings. We cannot have meetings merely for the sake of meetings, ministry merely for ministry’s sake, or preaching merely for preaching’s sake. We must always have Him before us.
We need light. We need more light so that we may see more of Him. He alone is worthy of our seeing.
The danger is that we see many negative things around us and in our country. We do not have to look for negative things; they are always there. Since the fall, there is nothing positive apart from the Lord Jesus. Turn your eyes away from the Lord Jesus, and everything becomes dark and negative.
My encouragement to you is this: do not pay attention to the negative things. Look to Jesus, and you will be liberated. Then there is hope. The light is for us to see the Lord Jesus.
Then He says, “I am the door.” What an open-heaven experience we have when we come to the Lord Jesus. He is the gate to heaven.
When we come to Him, we discover treasures that we have never discovered before. When we come to His house, we do not merely come in; we discover something of the heart of God.
When we see something of what is in God’s heart and what He is after, we are spoiled for anything else. He has brought us in through the door, into the secret place, so that we may discover something of His heart and what He is really after.
Remember the ark that Noah built. Thank God, there was only one door. Whether it was a large animal or a small animal, that door fitted all. It fitted an elephant, and it fitted the smallest creature.
When all the animals entered the ark, and Noah and his family entered, who shut the door? God shut the door.
When God shuts us in, are we in darkness? No. He opens the windows above. We have an open heaven. The opening is above, not on the side, so that we may see what is in God’s heart and know what He is after.
God’s desire is the place of His beloved Son—in the church, in your life, in my life, in my family, in your family, and eventually in the whole creation. That first place must begin somewhere.
We often think that the problem must be dealt with somewhere else in the world. But, brothers and sisters, it must begin here in our hearts. We cannot demand from others what they do not have. They do not know the Lord Jesus as we do. What about His place in us—in my life and your life, in my family and your family?
God wants to begin that work in you and me. He wants His Son to have His absolute place. Then the Lord will expand that place until, eventually, it fills the world and the whole creation. It has to begin somewhere.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit: to make the Lord Jesus Christ real in our individual lives and in our life together. This is the open door—to see Him and His place, as the Father would have Him in your life and mine.
In Revelation 3, in the letter to the church in Philadelphia, we read of Him Who opens and no one can shut, and Who shuts and no one can open. Then He says, “Behold, I have set before thee a door opened.”
Meditate on that. The Lord opened the door for all to come in. What a loving heart! The door is always open: “Come, come.”
Yet, thank God, once we are in, He shuts us in. That is full salvation. Once we are in, He shuts us in, and we can never get out again. We are in Christ forever.
We have an open door to behold Him, worship Him, and appreciate Him. What is the ministry of the Lord Jesus? He gives us food, He gives us light, and He gives us an open door. This is His ministry and His service to us. He came as the Son of Man to make all this possible.
In John 6, the Lord told the people that unless they ate Him, they had no life in themselves. He is the source of life. He came to give life, and to give it abundantly.
But is that enough? We are still in the world. We are still contaminated and defiled. That is why we come to John 13.
The Lord came to Peter and wanted to wash his feet, but Peter said, “No. Never.” Peter truly loved his Master. Seeing his Lord wash his feet, he simply could not take it.
But the Lord uttered those beautiful words: “Unless I wash thee, thou hast no part with Me.” That phrase has been lingering in my heart for many weeks.
Brothers and sisters, when the Lord Jesus came to earth, He died, was crucified, was buried, rose again, and ascended. He gave us life in the person of the Holy Spirit. Today, He is glorified and seated at the right hand of the Father. What is His ministry now? I believe He is washing our feet.
He washes our feet so that we may be fit to be His bride. He is holy. He is pure. We have life, but we are still in this world and are so easily defiled.
He is still washing our feet through His Word, through fellowship, and through the working of the Holy Spirit—purifying us and washing us. Why? To make us fit.
Whenever there is defilement, we are not fit for Him. When there is even a little dust in our lives, we are not fit for Him. He wants to make us perfect and pure like Himself, that He may look upon us and say, “Thou art bone of My bones, and flesh of My flesh.”
I believe that in these last days, the intense ministry of the Word of God through the Holy Spirit is washing us and fitting us for that day which is coming.
What a perfect Servant He is. He will not leave anything undone. He loves His own unto the end. The work He has begun, He will complete. He cannot rest until we are like Him.
He is washing us every day. He is forever serving us, ministering to us in love, mercy, patience, and long-suffering. How difficult we are for Him to work upon and purify, yet He remains faithful. He is the faithful Servant.
In Matthew 6, we see the kingdom life. We cannot live that kingdom life without the life of Jesus. As I have meditated on this servant heart revealed in the Gospel of John, I have realized that He is the only Servant Who truly knows what it means that a man cannot serve two masters.
After He was baptized by John, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. Those forty days and forty nights were a decisive time, because there it was settled whose will would be served.
His hunger was real. Satan’s attempt was to move Him away from that servant heart of serving God’s interests, and to lead Him to serve His own interests. His need was legitimate, because He was hungry.
But the Lord Jesus refused. He resisted, because the will of the Father was more precious to Him than His own life. He is the One Who knows that no one can serve two masters.
He was tempted to draw attention to Himself, but He refused. His focus was His Father and His Father’s interests, not Himself.
Satan offered Him the dominion and glory of this temporal world and its kingdoms, but He resisted and refused. He would take only what was offered to Him by His Father, and only in His Father’s way.
Did that mean the cross? Yes, it meant the cross.
How do we fit in? If God’s eternal purpose is to be realized in our generation or in the next generation, it will not be by merely knowing God’s eternal purpose. It will not be by talking about it.
It will be by having His heart as our heart—the mind of Christ, the heart of a servant. Then His purpose will be realized.
We speak about recovery and restoration, but we need the recovery of the Lord’s servant heart in our own hearts if His will is to be done.
Lastly, turn to 1 John 4:17.
Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, even so are we in this world.
I want you to pay attention to that last phrase: “As He is, even so are we in this world.” Not merely that we shall be, but that we are, because we have His life.
What kind of life did the Lord live on this earth? Even though He was the Son of God, His heart was a servant heart. God desires the same in us. We are all children of God, and we often think of enjoying the blessings of the Father. Sons enjoy all the goodness and blessings of the Father.
But Jesus Christ was the perfect Son of God, and yet His heart was the heart of a perfect Servant. On one side, we enjoy Him as His sons and daughters. But we must also have the heart of the Lord Jesus—a servant heart—so that His will may be done.
I am convinced that we know much about God’s eternal purpose, what He is after, and what He longs for. But if we do not have that servant heart, He will not obtain it. When we have that servant heart, then He will obtain it.
May the Lord recover the servant heart of the Lord Jesus in each of us, individually and corporately. Thank God, we cannot produce it ourselves, but He is in us to minister that same life to us. He can do it.
Father, we commit these few words back to You for Your safekeeping. Use them for Your purpose. Use them for the fulfillment of what is in Your heart.
Lord, we cry to You. We cry to You. We are so unlike Your Son, the Lord Jesus. Have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us.
Lord, may we be as You were when You were on earth—conscious of only one thing: that we are here to be in Your house, we are here to be about Your business, and we are here to do Your will.
Have mercy upon us, and Your will be done.
We thank You for the perfect ministry of our Lord Jesus. He Who has begun this good work will surely finish it. We give glory to You. In the name of the Lord Jesus, amen.